Contents
Requirements
- An ISO of the Windows 7 installation DVD or a Windows 7 disc.
- You can download ISO’s from the list of Windows 7 ISO Direct Download Links.
- You’ll still need your own valid product id key to activate Windows 7.
- A USB Flash Drive that has a capacity of 4GB or larger.
- This USB flash drive will be totally erased and formatted with NTFS!
- All data on this USB flash drive will be lost!
How to Make a Bootable USB Flash Drive Without Using the bootsect Command:
- You’ll need to use the DiskPart utility on the system you will use to prep the USB flash drive.
- Insert the target USB Flash Drive into the computer
- Start the DiskPart utility by typing diskpart at a command prompt, and issue the following commands:
| Command | Description |
| list disk | Use to identify the drive number of the USB flash drive. |
| select disk 1 | Where the “1” is the corresponding number of your USB flash drive. |
| clean | Erase everything from the USB flash drive |
| create partition primary | |
| select partition 1 | |
| active | Make the partition active/bootable |
| format fs=ntfs quick | Set up the file system as NTFS |
| assign | Gives the USB flash drive a drive letter, so that you can access it from Windows Explorer. The next available drive letter will be assigned. |
| Exit | Exit from DiskPart |
- Copy everything from the Windows 7 installation DVD or ISO onto the USB flash drive.
- You now have a bootable USB flash drive that you can use to install Windows 7.
Using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to Create a Bootable Windows 7 USB Flash Drive
- Download the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool from the Microsoft Store
- If the “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool” thinks the ISO is invalid then:
- Use the Windows 7 ISO AVDP Copy Tool by Rafael Rivera to patch the ISO.
- Or, open the ISO with PowerISO (full version), go to File > File properties, Check UDF, and then press OK
Note:
- If you’re trying to create a 64-bit USB bootable device using a 32-bit version of Windows, then the last step of the “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool,” running bootsect, to make the USB flash drive bootable will fail.
- You’ll have to download the 32-bit version of bootsect.exe from your account in the Microsoft Store.
- See: “When creating a bootable USB device, I am getting an error about bootsect” under the Troubleshooting section
- Or, insert the USB flash drive into a 64-bit Windows 7 PC and issue the following command from the command prompt. (Replace f:with the drive lettter of the USB flash drive):
bootsect /nt60 f: /mbr
Reference
- Installing Windows XP 64-bit on a Latitude D630…here are the drivers…
- How to create a bootable USB flash drive for the purpose of installing Windows Vista or Windows 7
- How To Create Bootable Windows 7 USB To Install Windows 7 From USB Flash Drive (Using Windows 7 DVD/USB Tool)
- Windows 7 ISO Direct Download Links
- Bootsect Command-Line Options
- How To Make Bootable USB